The children's story “Rafi and George” is a classic and a favourite for bed-time stories. Many believe it is a made up tale designed to warn children of the dangers of messing with robotics - a contrast to the idea of putting a Dunian mind inside a robot, a rather more agreeable state of affairs.

The truth is in fact a lot sadder, and it is in fact based upon real events. Before computer-mind interfacing technology was fully understood, all kinds of experiments were carried out to pursue this avenue. Rafi, the protagonist of our story, decide to try and interface their mind with a computer system called George. While the story claims the malevolent computer took over Rafi instantly, in fact it's believed that this was only what it looked like from the outside. While the tale has Rafi's pet Aurora spots the chip on the back of Rafi's neck and manages to bite it out, saving Rafi, her real life fate was not so kind. Concerned about Rafi's state, many attempted different things to try and save her. However one fateful individual believed the only true way to save Rafi was killing them, and thus our poor little hero was killed. Scientific research later concluded it would not be possible for Rafi's mind to be taken over quite so dramatically, making Rafi's death all too premature.

Given the rather sad ending, it is no wonder that countless retellings have favoured happier conclusions to the tale, though there is some small hope of happiness to be gleaned from the real events. The sky-Serpent Aurora did also exist, and went on to live a very happy life after Rafi's passing. Perhaps we should be sharing more stories of dear little Aurora at bedtime.

From Tales Untold: The Truth Behind Our Favorite Bedtime Stories